Diagnosis: Painter

Details are everything. The nature of my paintings, and their charm, are in the details, their abundance and thoughtful use.

Through my expressive painterly style, I infuse an art work with its meaning and emotion. Rather than faithfully recreate the obvious physical qualities a camera documents, I find creative ways to visually describe the unseen aspects of personality and essence of character unique to the people and places I depict. We've all been frustrated and disappointed when our camera couldn't accurately capture the wonder of an awe inspiring sunset or majestic view. But when we discover a painting of stunning, color, fresh innovation or dazzling energy we are deeply moved, have an almost visceral reaction and feel that sensation of "yes, that captures it." Our experience of the world is richer than what the eye alone sees. I stylize images to recreate a felt reality beyond the empirical and literal, to show a richness of life beyond what we can measure or see, to show how we feel immersed in a landscape or memorable encounter.

Inspiration often comes from something unconventional and obscure. Many of my subjects are expected to be a new to the viewer, my painting serves as a colorful introduction. I admire unusual people who have the courage to embrace and express their uniqueness.  They often possess a beauty unappreciated by mainstream culture or values. I approach landscape work in the same way I do people. My landscapes aren't about the view, but the personality, character and history of the place. 

Each painting I begin is a new journey or discovery. There is very little repetition. I have to reinvent every time, find a new palette, new patterns, and new ways to resolve old problems. I explore a different subject and story in nearly every work. This ensures a unique and fresh experience for each painting. 

Almost all of my work takes a great deal of time to complete, so I develop multiple pieces at a time. The surface of the work is rich because of the many layers of paint applied over months or even years to achieve the fullness and complexity of color, diversity of value, balance of opacity and transparency that together make the paintings glow. My fascination with pattern, both organic and mechanical has increasingly come express itself in my artistic style. My best paintings use organic patterns to unite all the elements of the image. Subject, process and invention combine to make my work describable as technically accomplished, narrative painting with an expressive style and a contemporary slant.

Like the unusual people I most admire, I find my own way. My own inner life, my obsessions and observations seen through my uniquely warped lens are expressed to the world through paint. Thus the moniker I use to present my body of work is, "diagnosis: painter."

Autobiography:

I am an artist, painter and social instigator holed up in a rustic log cabin in Colorado that I've transformed into a jewel box of curated treasures. My artwork reveals that I am not frightened by the unusual. I embrace unconventional beauty that is found in many different places from roadside litter to the nuance of a once soaring voice in decline. My formal education took me from Los Angeles to Rome, and back to Colorado to earn my MFA. Due to a ironic twist of fate, my likeness anonymously appeared wrapped around the front and back covers of James Spada's book "The Romantic Male Nude." Mercifully, the image of me lays and lies hidden under the paper jacket with my back to camera's gaze. More honorably and prominently, my portrait of Yma Sumac was featured on the cover of her biography. The bracelet she is seen wearing on the Peruvian stamp marking the centenary of her birth now graces my own arm. I’ve authored some books and had numerous exhibitions of my paintings. The Library of Congress has preserved a digital archive of my work and career because of "its cultural and historic significance." My works and collaborations have been included in exhibitions at the Kinsey Institute and are in its permanent collection as well as belonging to the Museum of Boulder.

A constant source of inspiration and learning are the college students of all ages that I’ve taught over the decades since the last days of the Reagan Administration. As an amateur historian and pop culture archaeologist, my original research has revealed fascinating stories that sometimes are documented and retold in my paintings and have been recounted by others in several books and articles. Meeting pioneering artists Don Bachardy and Elver Barker, brought together my love of art and deep interest and creative research in hidden gay history. As an art model, I explore making art and images from an entirely different approach than using paint and pen. Gender, beauty, movement and form are the focus of many collaborations with other artists as a model. My colorful family tree includes The Malbim, Rabbi Levi Yitzchok of Berdichev and the rabbinical Halperin family of Lithuania as well as Holocaust survivors, criminals, artists, psychologists, philanthropic billionaires and junk peddlers. Absent are gifted musicians and Olympiads. My fascinating daughter shares my keen eye, sharp memory and many sensitivities.